LGC is an international science-based company and market leader in analytical, forensic and diagnostic services and reference standards. Headquartered in south west London, UK, LGC provides chemical, biochemical and DNA-based analyses to a variety of organisations. The company’s research group principally provides validation and standardisation work for UK Government, industry and other interested parties, such as the study of the quality of current DNA and RNA molecular testing assays, and comparison of the methods and platforms used. Many of the studies focus on applications for drug discovery and toxicology or clinical prognosis, diagnosis and therapy.

Carole Foy, one of LGC’s principal scientists commented: “Microarray-based technologies are increasingly available for more and more applications. Nevertheless, these technologies are still relatively new and, at the moment, there is little agreed standardisation relating to their use in research, diagnostics and healthcare.” She continued: “LGC is involved in looking at how these assays are being used and checking on quality aspects, such as making sure the appropriate controls are compared within and across a number of different platforms. We have also developed various reference materials and controls that can be spiked into an assay, to help assess and report performance.”

“LGC was recently involved in a project that compared different methods for performing whole genome amplification prior to PCR. We wanted to examine method potential for bias or selective amplification of certain parts of the genome, and needed to use array-based comparative genomic hybridisation (aCGH) to check the performance of the different platforms so we approached OGT.

The company provided a CGH array for the entire chromosome 16, a useful representative chromosome for us encompassing telomeres, a centromere, and a variety of repeat sequences against which to test the whole genome amplification methods.”

“We chose OGT because of the company’s good reputation for microarray services, in particular its ability to design CGH arrays specific to our needs and its availability for interactive project discussions. OGT provided a high quality service, providing frequent and plentiful advice on handling the arrays and carrying out the procedures. We were even able to use OGT’s laboratory facilities when in need of access to another hybridisation oven!” Foy added. “We were very pleased and have already ordered further, different arrays from OGT for a new project."